SAMURAI Judo Club's young stars have been in action at events at home and away.

Leah Grosvenor blazed her way to gold at the Sportif Scottish Open Championships in the higher age band, whilst also getting a silver in her own age band.

Olivia Turner also weighed in with two bronzes. Players from around fifteen different countries including Canada and Brazil attended the event, held at Meadowbank Stadium in Edinburgh.

Leah comfortably defeated both British and European opponents on her way to the final of her own age under-18 age band.

In the final she was up against Scotland’s Josie Steele, the undisputed current British number one in her category and the only player other than Leah to win a ranking event this year.

Oddly, though, the two of them were meeting in competition for the first time.

Leah dominated the standing work and rocked her opponent, but when they went to the ground she was caught by a very strong turnover into a hold and had to settle for silver.

In the under-21 section, however, Leah, who has just turned 15, completely dominated the category.

With Steele electing not to compete at this age range as well, Leah had a field day, winning all four of her contests without conceding a single score to take the gold.

Olivia Turner also entered both the under-18 and under-21 age bands and was rewarded by bronzes in both, reaching but then losing in the semi-final each time but then coming back to win the bronze play-offs.

Nathan Gallacher had an unfortunate start when he lost to a Swedish player after dominating the contest but being caught by a late score.

He came back to win a number of contests before eventually losing out and finished fifth in the older age band. Hetty Tinsdale also finished fifth.

Meanwhile, there was a young players’ event at the Samurai’s own premises in Zortech Avenue, attended by over twenty clubs.

It was a good day for the Turner family, with Evan and Rhea Turner both taking gold medals, whilst there were silvers for Mateo Allen, Dillon Walker, Harry Ashen, and Martin Allen, reflecting the growing quality of the club’s latest squad of orange belts.

There was also a silver for exciting newcomer Harriet Payne-Lunn, whose mum is a former high standard competition player and black belt.

There were some new names among the bronze medalists as well, with Oliver Handley, Freya Payne, Leo Lloyd-Williams and Edward Martin all marking their competition debut with bronze medals.

Isaac Sobolewski was extremely unlucky not to win gold after defeating the eventual gold medalist but then losing out on points overall, whilst Joshua Walker, Meghann O’Sullivan, Lucy Hickinbotttom, Bonnie Deeming-Land and Lola Grosvenor all added bronzes to the Samurai total.